Women's equality distant goal in world

Mar. 9, 2011 12:00 AMAssociated Press

Egyptian women demanding equal rights on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day were shoved by men who said they should go home where they belong. Congolese women asked their government to protect them from systematic rapes, and women in Croatia who lost their jobs accused the government of corruption.

But the centennial anniversary of the day established by socialist women to promote better working conditions, the right to vote and hold public office, and equality with men, also was marked Tuesday by festivities including dancing in the street in South Korea's capital and a 10-kilometer run in Mexico City.

Speaking at U.N. headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recalled that 100 years ago "gender equality was a largely radical idea."

Although progress since then should be celebrated, he said, "We must also remember that in too many countries and in too many societies women remain second-class citizens, denied their fundamental rights, deprived of legitimate opportunity."

Their second-class status was evident in Cairo's now-famous Tahrir Square, which protesters who succeeded in ousting President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11 used as their base. Hundreds of women - some in headscarves and flowing robes, others in jeans - who marched to the square to celebrate the anniversary, demand equality and an end to sexual harassment were soon outnumbered by men who chased them out.

"They said that our role was to stay home and raise presidents, not to run for president," said Farida Helmy, a 24-year-old journalist.

In troubled Ivory Coast, thousands of women defiantly marched to the bloodstained street where seven female demonstrators armed only with tree branches symbolizing peace were killed last week by soldiers in armored personnel carriers who opened fire.

The women had tried to march every day since Thursday's attack but lost their nerve in the face of an army loyal to strongman Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to relinquish the presidency to the internationally recognized winner of the November election, Alassane Ouattara.

The women escaped attack Tuesday, but hours later the army burst into Treichville, the downtown neighborhood where they marched, and killed at least four civilians.